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by pagets



Category: Wentworth (TV)
Genre: F/F, Minor Character Death, child psych au, franky is raising tess, will add characrter tags as they appear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-23 07:32:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14929925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pagets/pseuds/pagets
Summary: After Alan dies suddenly Franky is left raising six-year-old Tess and seeks out highly recommended child psychologist, Bridget Westfall, to make sure her little sister is adjusting to their new circumstances. Little does she know that her new normal is about to get turned on its head yet again.





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Franky snoozed her alarm and was laying in bed when she heard the now familiar sound of small feet barrelling down the hall to her bedroom. She braced herself for the impact of her little sister on the bed. This had become her new normal — being woken by an eager six-year-old, getting her dressed and fed and dropping her off at school before heading into work at Legal Relief.

Tess was a good kid, the best honestly and she bloody loved the Gromit but Franky was shit scared of fucking this whole thing up. The memory of her dad had shown up at her flat and just dropping a fucking bomb; that he was about to have another kid, vivid in her memory. They’d had a strained relationship since she was seventeen and doing her, thankfully, last stint in juvie. It was a total fucking gut punch knowing he walked out on her, left her with her sorry excuse for a mum and never looked back, till he was about to become a dad again. She’d kept him at arm's length but he said he couldn’t become a dad again knowing they didn’t have a proper relationship. He wanted Franky to have a relationship with her baby sister, be the role model he knew she could be.

Even though she’d gotten her act together by the time she turned eighteen, refusing to end up in jail like some of her mates, Franky had floundered for a few years. She picked up a few kitchen hand jobs where she could, even auditioned for a fucking cooking reality show. _Thank fuck that didn’t pan out,_ she thought. Eventually, she took an interest in law, of all things, and now, age thirty, she was Franky Doyle; paralegal. Still a year or two from being fully qualified but she’d reached at least some semblance of stability. At least until her old man went and fucking croaked it. Heart attack, at fucking fifty-two.

So yeah, new normal.

In a bit, if an ironic role reversal, Tess’s mum had fucked off when she was three, remarried and moved out of state. She kept in contact, a card on birthdays and around the holidays but she’d given up her parental rights. Alan, in all his divine wisdom, had outlined his desire for Franky to gain guardianship of Tess, if something happened to him.

Although the death of a parent was different to the abuse that Franky has been subjected to growing up she knew that is was just a beast by another name, traumatic in its own way and her biggest fear was seeing that trauma fester in Tess and become a blistering rage inside of her. The same rage that burned deep with Franky for so many years. The untamed aggression she knew still reared its ugly head in her from time to time. She’d learn to channel it, make her better, work harder but she didn’t wanna see it get the better of her baby sister. Consume her like it has consumed Franky for so long.

Things seemed to be going okay but she wasn’t sure that Tess fully comprehended that her father was gone forever. She’d tried her best to explain the situation but six months into it she wasn’t convinced that Tess didn’t just think that her dad was on an extended vacation or that this was just a prolonged slumber party. After fretting a bit for the past few weeks Franky got her hands on the number of a well regarded- ed child psychologist a few of the other paralegals in her office used when a case called for it, shit that left kids orphaned or with PTSD of varying degrees. It had been burning a hole in her pocket while Franky just waited for the other shoe to drop, constantly on edge.

It dropped a week later.

Franky was at work when she got a call from the principal’s secretary at Tess’s primary school, asking her to come to collect Tess from school because she’d gotten into a fight with another student on the playground.

Franky sat in the principal's office thirty minutes later next to a mute Tess. “T, listen, you gotta give your side of the story, yeah? Otherwise whatever that bra—other kid says goes.” Franky bit her tongue to stop herself from calling a freaking seven-year-old names. Tess remained silent, eyes downcast and to the principal, it was seen as a clear admission of guilt.

“Ms. Doyle, I’m sorry, I know this has been a difficult time for you both but the boy’s parents are being extremely demanding and if Tess won’t say what provoked her—“ The principal, who dressed often in floral patterns and warm colours, paused and seemed conflicted. Franky liked her well enough from the few times they’d interact- ed since her dad had passed and couldn’t find it in her to drag the situation out, more concerned with knowing what was going in Tess’s head. “It’s Wednesday, perhaps it’s best for everyone if Tess we’re to take a few days, return to school on Monday?”

Franky nodded in acknowledgment, “Come on, Gromit,” she stood and guided Tess out of the office towards the car. “Pizza for dinner?”

 

* * *

 

  
Later Franky stood at the kitchen counter, ragged business card clasped between her fingers, her phone resting beside her. 

 

** Newport Health & Wellbeing **

Bridget Westfall, _Psychologist_

35 Challis St, Newport VIC 3015

 

 _Just bite the fucking bullet_. Franky dialed in the number on the card and it rang several times before a woman answered, “Hi, thank you for calling Newport Health and Wellbeing this is Allie speaking, how can I help you?”

“Hi um,” Franky cleared her throat,”I was hoping to make an appointment with an uh, Bridget Westfall? She was recommended to me by some of the social workers at Legal Relief?”

Franky rarely felt comfortable flaunting her connections, if you could call them that, but she wasn’t sure how in demand this Westfall woman was and she was too worried about Tess to really care right now.

“Sure, and what was your name?”

“Franky Doyle but uh, it’s actually for my little sister, Tess. I heard Westfall is good with kids, yeah?”

“Yes, Bridget does a lot of work with children that have gone through traumatic experiences. Dead parents, creepy old dudes, all sorts of fucked up shit."

"Right-o," Franky chuckled, instantly at ease by how frank this girl had revealed herself to be, gone was the polite, clearly rehearsed script she'd initiated their conversation with. 

Allie clarified that she was Tess’s primary caregiver and got some other details from her about why she was seeking out the appointment for her.

“I have an appointment tomorrow at 2:45 if that suits? We just had a cancellation about an hour ago.” _Tomorrow, Fuck._

Franky had kinda hoped to have more time to ease Tess into seeing someone.

Franky found herself fretting, anxious in the anticipation of doing something she’d never thought she’d do: walk into a fucking therapists office willingly. She wasn’t even the one seeing this woman and it felt daunting as hell.

She just hoped it would help Tess in the long run. 

“Tomorrow, yeah that works. Cheers.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short intro. I don't always feel like Franky or Bridget would choose to have children of their own (as much as I love the idea) so I love it when Tess gets utilized as their pseudo child. I have some basic plot points figured out for this story but especially as things move along and the 3 of them start to bond please feel free to share anything you'd like to see them do in this little AU.


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